Schools in the pandemic: Seeking education equity for India’s marginalized kids | Feature Stories - Microsoft

Abhishek Mande Bhot, independent writer and editor covering news, lifestyle, and luxury for publications in India and the US explains, A nonprofit looks to technology so under-privileged students can learn in the classroom and remotely.

Jaira Amzad Ali, attends an online class from the confines of her home. Teachers like Aggarwal say Teams is a safe place for the students as only those invited can enter an online class.
Photo: Amit Verma for Microsoft

When the whole of India went into a sudden COVID-19 lockdown last year Uzma Bano’s first thought was: “I won’t be able to go to school.”

Learning was something the 7^th grader always looked forward to. The classroom was a daily escape from the confines of her home in the capital Delhi–a single 150-square-feet room she shares with her parents and elder brother, Shahi.

Uzma’s father Shakeel Ahmed earns around USD 6 a day as a carpenter or laborer when he can find shift work. With so little, surviving is tough. But unlike other poor families who often rely on their children to skip classes to earn extra cash, the Ahmeds always made sure their kids attended lessons...

Nowadays, the organization is developing solutions that blend classroom learning with remote learning to help communities with limited financial resources. To do so it’s working with decision-makers in the tech sector, like Farhana Haque, group director for devices at Microsoft India.

“During the pandemic we realized how privileged we were. While our children were attending classes online, so many others could not,” she says. “Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more–so we asked ourselves what we could do as a company.”...

“The way of teaching has changed completely and forever for the schools that we support,” TFI’s Gulati says. “Blended learning is here to stay, and students need to be equipped to adjust in such an environment, which means they’d be learning (in-person) in classrooms but also with technology, outside of classrooms. That’s where our focus will have to be.”

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Source: Microsoft